A typical fuel cell power system includes a power section in which one or more stacks of fuel cells are provided. The efficacy of the fuel cell power system depends in large part on the integrity of the various contacting and sealing interfaces within individual fuel cells and between adjacent fuel cells of the stack.
To achieve the power needed for some implementations, a fuel cell stack can include large numbers of membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), flow field plates, and sealing gaskets. These and other components of the stack must be carefully aligned and assembled. Misalignment of even a few components can lead to gas leakage, hydrogen crossover, and performance/durability deterioration.
Conventional fuel cell assembling approaches typically involve cutting several of the input web components to form stacks of such material in batch operations. The components are then manipulated using various mechanical and vacuum means to properly position the components during fuel cell assembly.
Although many of these processes can be automated, such approaches typically involve numerous handling, registration, and alignment steps performed by complex, time consuming, and typically expensive automation equipment. The number and complexity of processing steps associated with conventional fuel cell manufacturing approaches typically reduces product throughput, which negatively affects the productivity of an automated fuel cell assembly line. Moreover, many conventional fuel cell fabrication apparatuses and methods are not well suited for a high degree of automation, particularly such apparatus and processes which have tight positional tolerance requirements.
There is a need for improved fuel cell manufacturing apparatuses, methodologies, and fuel cell subassemblies produced from such apparatuses and methodologies. There is a further need for such apparatuses, methodologies, and fuel cell subassemblies that can be implemented in an automated assembly environment, such as in an automated fuel cell assembly plant. The present invention fulfills these and other needs, and addresses other deficiencies in prior approaches.